Papers
64
Total Citations
1,005
H-Index
16
About
Roland Lenain is a prominent robotics researcher whose work sits at the intersection of autonomous mobile robotics, agricultural automation, and control theory. Based primarily in France, Lenain has devoted his career to solving one of precision agriculture's most pressing challenges: enabling autonomous vehicles to navigate accurately across unpredictable, low-grip outdoor terrain. His most influential contribution, a 2009 paper on four-wheel-steering agricultural robot guidance (118 citations), demonstrated how autonomous systems could achieve the precision demanded by modern farming while accounting for the sliding and slipping phenomena that plague off-road environments. This concern with sliding dynamics runs throughout his body of work, reflected in his development of sideslip angle observers, model predictive control strategies, and adaptive path-tracking algorithms that collectively allow robots to operate reliably at speed on slippery surfaces. Beyond single-vehicle guidance, Lenain has made significant strides in multi-robot coordination, proposing formation control frameworks that enable cooperative autonomous vehicles to collaborate efficiently on agricultural tasks—a vision with transformative potential for sustainable farming. His 2016 textbook on wheeled mobile robots further cements his role as an educator and synthesizer in the field. With over 560 cumulative citations across his key works, Lenain's research offers both theoretical rigor and real-world applicability, making him an essential reference for anyone studying agricultural robotics or outdoor autonomous systems.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2Dynamic path tracking control of a vehicle on slippery terrain74 citations · 2015
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- 6Adaptive and Predictive Path Tracking Control for Off-road Mobile Robots51 citations · 2007
- 7Modeling and Control of Wheeled Mobile Robots46 citations · 2016
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